Total Eclipse of the Heart: Holding Space for the Love & Marriage Issue

Unless you live under a rock or recently awoke from a yearslong coma, you’re probably aware that Vermont is set to experience a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event in April: a total solar eclipse. What does this rarish alignment of the sun, moon and Earth have to do with Seven Days‘ annual Love & Marriage issue? Glad you asked.

Moments before “totality” — when the moon completely obscures the sun and plunges the Green Mountains into darkness — we’ll be treated to a jewel of the cosmos, a bead of light springing from the sun’s corona that astronomers call the “diamond ring.” That phenomenon, visible for only seconds, inspired artist Rob Donnelly’s cover illustration.

Undoubtedly, someone somewhere in Vermont will pop the question during the eclipse. Should their beloved say yes, the couple would do well to shop for wedding attire at Needleman’s Bridal & Formal. Now in its 100th year, the store was around for Vermont’s last solar eclipse, in 1932.

Of course, marriage is hard work. It requires patience, willingness to compromise and sometimes the ability to put up with a partner’s snoring. To help with that last one, a Shelburne couple invented Zquiet, an anti-snoring device that is designed to save relationships.

If your union requires a deeper fix, you might give David Helfand a call. The St. Johnsbury psychologist specializes in using neurofeedback to help troubled couples get back on the same wavelength.

Brain-mapping technology wasn’t available when Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake made a home together in Weybridge in the 1800s. In a forthcoming graphic novel, Vermont cartoonist laureate Tillie Walden examines the lives of two women who are believed to be one of the earliest documented same-sex couples in America.

Bryant and Drake might have enjoyed Dyke Night at the Wallflower Collective in Burlington. The monthly mixer helps remedy the lack of a dedicated lesbian bar in Vermont.

The dating game has certainly changed since the 19th century. These days, straight women looking to vet male partners can consult the Vermont enclave of the national Facebook group Are We Dating the Same Guy?, where women share intel on local men they’ve been involved with. But some say the group is more about doxing than dating.

Should a prospective suitor make it through that gauntlet and earn a date, why not book a dinner at one of the most romantic restaurants in the country: Michael’s on the Hill in Waterbury?

While you’re there, you might run into Seven Days food writers Melissa Pasanen and Jordan Barry, whose husbands have a lot of thoughts about being married to food critics.

Couples whose love has stood the test of time have their own special needs. A new University of Vermont Medical Center effort seeks to support caregivers of dementia patients, many of whom are spouses.

Let your love light shine this Valentine’s Day — just like the sun after that eclipse.